28 November 2015

Child Abuse

Institutions and governing bodies supposed to be investigating and judging of such criminal behaviour are so tainted with the allegations themselves that no sector of the community remains fit to do the job. Parents of children everywhere need be aware, vigilant and protective towards each and every child brought into this ugly world.   

A child abuse enquiry like no other, destined to sweep matters of deep public concern, under the carpet of delay.

Police already have sufficient complaints to bring cases against a variety of institutions and individuals, but by virtue of lack of resources or obfuscating reluctance, do not follow through with those cases already known about.
Justice Lowell Goddard chaired the enquiry until her unsuitability emerged from the enormity of the remit. Unsuitability through the poor choice taken by the Home Office and for reasons best known to them. More of which later. 

The enquiry website www.iicsa.org.uk,  supposedly taking information from victims.  Questioning into Westminster, The Anglican Church, The Roman Catholic Church, Residential Schools, Custodial Institutions and other Organised Networks, to name just a few of those investigations. Every one ends with a warning:

"The Enquiry is not accepting applications for core participant status or requesting evidence just yet. We will do so soon and details of how to do this will be set out here. To keep up to date with our progress, hearings and applications, please check this page and News regularly".   This quote taken from:    The Enquiry Website

Justice Goddard....Resigns on the 4th August 2016 , having spent long spells abroad, realised that her remit was impossible to fulfil. A carpet sweeper sweeps away.

 “I have recommended in my report to the home secretary that my departure provides a timely opportunity to undertake a complete review of the inquiry in its present form, with a view to remodelling it and recalibrating its emphasis more towards current events and thus focusing major attention on the present and future protection of children.” She declares.

The Times Newspaper reveals more here.. 


Professor Alexis Jay OBE  “I am committed to ensuring this Inquiry does everything it has set out to do and does so with pace, with confidence and with clarity.  

"Be in no doubt - the Inquiry is open for business and people are busier than ever working hard to increase momentum. The Panel and I are determined to make progress on all parts of the Inquiry's work, including speaking to victims and survivors.

I am determined to overcome the challenges along the way. I will lead the largest public inquiry of its kind and together with my fellow panel members we will fearlessly examine institutional failures, past and present and make recommendations so that the children of England and Wales are better protected now and in the future.”

Carpet sweeper with good intentions yet to do a clean sweep.


Her promises to listen hold no requirement to administer justice or punishment. No solution on how to protect children from present or future abuse.

Ben Emmerson QC. Resignation accepted 30th September, 2016. Another carpet sweeper abandons his post! ... Allegedly he himself became under the spotlight of suspicion of  having a complaint brought against him of assaulting one of his co-inquisitors. A twist of extraordinary irony considering his position of trust.

Perhaps a better candidate here would be Sir James Dyson OM CBE FRS FREng.  British inventor, industrial designer and founder of the Dyson company. The inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner.

Lawyers for nine men said to have been repeatedly sexually abused at school accused Justice Lowell Goddard of treating their clients with contempt and costing them money by “walking off” from the troubled child abuse inquiry.
The men who attended Stanhope Castle approved school in Co Durham travelled to the high court in London, days before the judge from New Zealand resigned, to offer evidence as to why they should take part in the independent inquiry into child sex abuse.
Even though the men – one of whom has been bed-bound for more than a decade – are vulnerable individuals who claim to have been “seriously and repeatedly sexually abused” as children, they were not offered any resolution on their application for “core participant” status before Goddard quit.
Their lawyer, David Enright of Howe & Co solicitors, has written to Keith Vaz, chair of the Commons home affairs select committee, to complain about the treatment of his clients by the judge, who was on an annual pay package of £500,000.  Enright said: “My clients were shocked that, subsequently and just days after they had made their renewed application for core participant status to Justice Goddard, she resigned with immediate effect.
“At no time, in the interim, did she consider it appropriate to determine my clients’ applications, which had been made before her and after a number of my clients had travelled to London to be present in the high court.
“My clients rightly consider it entirely unacceptable for a senior judge to, seemingly, simply walk off the job (or be asked to leave her job) before determining their applications for core participant status.”
Keith Vaz called on Goddard to explain her resignation to his select committee, and questions the judge over her treatment of the men.
So does that make matters much better? No!  Keith Vaz himself being the shamed minister involved in rent boy allegations, and therefore well qualified to put such questions, as an unabashed carpet sweeper himself.
The enquiry is unzipping and spilling its well paid staff by the wayside.
Lawyers who have resigned so far include:
Toby Fisher - joint first junior counsel to the inquiry (August 2015)
Elizabeth Prochaska - joint first junior counsel to the inquiry (September 2016)
Ben Emmerson QC - lead counsel on the inquiry (September 2016)
Aileen McColgan - lead barrister on inquiry investigations into the Anglican and Catholic churches (November 2016).

A survivors' group of 600 abuse victims has withdrawn from the independent inquiry into historic abuse, labelling it an "unpalatable circus".
The Shirley Oaks Survivors Association, which represents victims who lived in children's homes run by Lambeth Council, has lost confidence in the inquiry's leadership.
The Shirley Oaks Survivors Association, which has repeatedly threatened to withdraw in the past, is planning to publish the results of its own investigation.
It says the Home Office, which sponsors the inquiry and provided some of its staff, had a role in covering up abuse in the past.

19th November 2016. Alexis Jay declares in The Times:  "There are some people who would like to see us fail because it suits their agenda to not want dark institutional forces brought into the light. But shine that light we will."

Hopefully hers will be the light at the end of this long tunnel.
Dark institutional forces will include those abusers guilty of hurting children and reveal the animal nature of these harmful  traits. Human behaviour has its genetic roots alongside primeval behaviour that can surface in any one of us, yet too easily go unrecognised or denied, by peers that prefer not to see the damage done to children.
Within the Police forces even, there is a certain proportion who will take advantage of their position of trust. See this recent report by the BBC here. .

Great Britain has  the worst record of child abuse in all Europe. A core of abusers deep within the very institutions that  has set up an enquiry into itself!  A brand of tainted  inquisitors that stands little chance of outing those guilty of abuse from within. Dark institutional forces indeed. An enquiry designed to fail. An enquiry with an impossible remit. A vacuum with no power to  blow or suck out the truth without becoming hopelessly blocked by the sum of its failing parts.

Earlier post on the subject of public enquiries...



24 November 2015

One Man Caravan

Robert Edison Fulton, Jr. wrote a wonderful book in 1937 with the above title. One of those adventure epics that I enjoy reading from time to time. The true account of a young mans' motorcycle journey 40,000 miles around the world.
His travels made in 1932/3 included a traverse of the middle east tinder keg - a region once much safer than today, whose tribal peoples have defended it against all aggressors for as long as they took to become a race apart.
On balance, I am against intervention in the middle east. Already the focus of conflict between east and west. An entanglement of religions and cultures which may never be resolved.

Notwithstanding my atheistic viewpoints, thanksgiving seems an appropriate moment to promote an American author. The chosen book; not a Bible but a true account of one mans' faith in his fellow man to allow freedom of passsage and a welcome along the way.

The auther on his machine




23 November 2015

Sidmouth on a clear day

Sidmouth today was clearly the way to go for a spin in the Morgan. Before noon we took off via  Yettington and across Woodbury Common. The Devon lanes lead up through Otterton over the bridge by the Mill which has just changed hands and then our favourite stretch past Pinn Farm. From Pinn Farm the lane climbs high on the back of sea cliffs of red sandstone before plunging down into Sidmouth, to open onto the promenade.
A gentle stroll and browse of the Azure gift shop,  Mountstephen jewellers, debating where to settle for some light refreshment we choose a latte and toffee cake at Mocha by the Beach.
A chill morning meant we enjoyed the pick of a pleasant window seat for two.
The beach was also virtually deserted by Sidmouth standards. One intrepid couple were about to set off in their sea kayaks equipped with enough gear for an Atlantic crossing.  Their picnic lunch and primus stove was packed away below decks.

Turnstone on the Promenade


Heading south for some secluded cove


Empty Spider Crab 

Ebb tide about to uncover the sand



15 November 2015

Liberté, égalité, fraternité

Britain and France already know what its like to come under attack from afar and face a fight for freedom to live in peace.
Some murderous youths have chosen to listen to leaders that send them on a path of self destruction for a moment of perceived glory. Not something new in the history of warfare.






8 November 2015

A correct forecast

For the first time in a long time the wind forecast for the Teign Estuary was correct yesterday. The Storm Abigail moderated down to a force four or five and the turn out was half the number of boats usual for a Saturday afternoon.
Lying in fourth until this Saturdays autumn series, two firsts put me up to second place behind Andy who stays in the lead.
An exhilerating two races back to back led to some capsizes and planing across the estuary from Coombe Cellars Pub to Red Rock, beside the railway. Tide against wind raised a short sharp chop which added speed. Planing was also possible for most of the downwind leg to the Railway buoy. Both races were shortened to two rounds each, much to my relief, being in a somewhat exhausted state.  Jibing was a manouvre not safe to undertake. Staying upright was the main goal and simply finishing a bonus.

The previous Saturday my centreboard snagged somebodies fishing line off the Coombe Cellars Pub and required a doubling back jibe very close to the high wall. Though the line detached and ran free my place in the race fell back from 4th to 8th. Of twenty races just eleven are to count in the series, so that one will be a discard.


Towards Red Rock in lighter conditions


At sea off Felpham in a stiff breeze -  Showing the sort of conditions enjoyed yesterday.


Twenty four hours later and the estuary is still the focus for a weekend fishing competition with both banks festooned with the rods and tripods and wading optimistic fishers for the prized flounder that come up from the sea at this time of year.





Speaking to one Welshman down here for the weekend - Not a single bite in 48 hours had he.

One competitor struck lucky with a flounder which will feature in a magazine no doubt.